New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
In New England, we have a saying “Don’t like the weather? Wait 5 minutes.” Our region’s weather is famous (or infamous) all over the country, but this week even those states that are considering to have warm temperatures all year round are getting a taste of what our winters are like.
In my lifetime, I can’t recall a time when places like Texas or Florida received not only snow but temperatures that dropped below 0 degrees.
CBS News photo.
Many people will attribute these radical or extreme changes to global warming or climate change, but polar vortexes have always been around and are not a new weather pattern. “The term “polar vortex” has only recently been popularized, bringing attention to a weather feature that has always been present. It is also not a feature that exists at the Earth’s surface,” states the weather.gov website.
Because Climatologists need decades to declare empirically whether a weather pattern is due to global warming, particularly mankind’s contribution to it, there is considerable uncertainty in the conclusions based on current data.
“Scientists identified interactions with Arctic sea ice decline, reduced snow cover, evapotranspiration patterns, NAO anomalies or weather anomalies which are linked to the polar vortex and jet stream configuration. However, because the specific observations are considered short-term observations there is uncertainty about the conclusions.” – Seviour, William J.M. (14 April 2017).
So, what does this current polar vortex mean for the country? An ice storm all the way from the west coast to the Gulf Coast wind, chills near 60 below zero in the Upper Midwest, snow, rain, slush, and messy commutes across for everyone except California and Hawaii. The South is confronting shoveling snow, power outages, dangerous road conditions, and other aspects of a typical New England weather that we just consider normal. The vast majority of the country is smack dab in the middle of this polar vortex right now with even Texas Gov. Abbott having issued a state disaster declaration.
National Weather Service photo.
The poor souls in Texas – one of the aforementioned states that typically enjoy warm weather year-round – are experiencing a cold blast with wind chills bringing negative degree temperatures. For comparison, the average temperature in Texas this time of year is 60 degrees. Even in those states used to winter weather like ours – North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin – are experiencing deadly “feels like” temperatures as low as -60 degrees.
It is tonight and Tuesday that we in the Northeast will feel the effects of this polar vortex, beginning with rain and ice storms and Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and upper New York getting between 8″-14″ of snow. Furthermore, Wednesday and Thursday may bring with it another winter storm laden with snow and ice and greater New Bedford is forecasted to get 2-4″ of snow on Thursday making for a messy morning commute.
There is a sad irony (if you live down south anyway) that the SouthCoast is getting some rain, 2-4″ of snow, and mild temperatures while the South who enjoy rubbing our noses in the warm, even hot, winter temperatures, will be in single to double-digit temperatures.
My southern friends enjoy posting pictures on their social media accounts of them swimming in their pools or having their toes in the sand at the beach while we are shoveling ourselves out. So, it’s safe to say we have a little Schadenfreude now that they get to feel our pain.
Sorry, not sorry.
